Let's get one thing straight. Like, absolutely clear. Irrefragably undeniable. Sasuke was not insecure.

Snobbish, yes. Arrogant, yes. Gorgeous, yes. But insecure? No.

Still...

At this moment...this precise moment... (because personalities weren't generated from horoscopes or environmental upbringing or genetic predisposition, but situational disposition)... he was having a hard time controlling a shockingly strong self-esteem crisis.

And the person that induced this horrible state of mind was his very own kind and gentle older brother.

Kind and gentle? Were those the words? No. no...more like a...deliberately ...provoking... older brother.

...or something

Because the current situation was one any sibling would find intolerable.

Because Itachi wasn't wearing a shirt or a t-shirt or a vest or anything made of any material out of all the god-damned materials in this god-damned world to cover his god-damned upper body. But it would make absolutely no sense to employ "god-damned" as a descriptive expletive when concerning the older Uchiha's body, for it was abundantly clear to any and all humans who possessed functioning eyes (and unfortunately for Sasuke at the moment, his family was blessed with the most superior optic genes known to geneticists) that Uchiha Itachi's body was very much blessed and very much endowed.

It wasn't only his shockingly attractive muscles either, it was his entire being. His silky chocolate brown hair that had a salon-like sheen to it, his haunting captivating eyes, his lithe neck and oh god, the collar bones, don't get me started on the collar bones! but ...there appears to be a digression. Anyway, suffice it to say whoever was responsible for the aesthetics of humans loved Itachi dearly. Probably loved itachi most in the entire world.

Intolerable situation, right?

And the thing was, it shouldn't have been the shock it was. But it was a titanic shock...perhaps the shock was more related to Sasuke's libido's raging approval of the sudden exposure to exquisite male physiology than the actual spectacle itself but let's skip over than unnecessary observation...adolescents were a strange group after all; prone to the most socially undesirable thoughts on occasion...it meant less than nothing. Yes, less than nothing. Sasuke liked that notion. He liked it so much he repeated it no less than fifteen times mentally.

The thing you must understand, as to why Sasuke was briefly (approximately ten minutes) stupefied when he threw open Itachi's room door and barged in, is that Itachi is a very private person. He is also a very modest person. (and humble! my goodness you'd have to be the embodiment of humble to hide that lip-licking figure away from the world...) Ahem. In fact, he's so private and modest, Sasuke has never actually seen him shirtless before. Unlike Sasuke, who walks around with a half open or half unbuttoned shirt on a daily basis, whether he's at home or not.

When Itachi's body steps forward Sasuke's eyes remember there is a face attached and focuses its attention on the equally visually stimulating...er, stimulus.

Itachi is frowning slightly and seems sincerely worried.

"Sasuke? Are you alright?"

"..."

"Sasuke?"

Wait! He was thinking. True, normally this cognitive process didn't take so long, but clearly that was Itachi's fault. So he should just be patient while Sasuke tries to remember the reason he barged into Itachi's room in the first place. It was something important, wasn't it?

"SASUKE!"

Sasuke flinched at the booming yell that metaphorically slapped his senses back into him. And also, scared the shit out of him. That deep voice could only belong to...oh, shit.

"Father wants to speak to you."

"Father" seemed pretty pissed off when Sasuke with his damned luck ran into him and was ordered to immediately, with heavy emphasis on the word, summon his brother. Like Sasuke was the friggin' messenger boy of the family. But like the dutiful son he was he sprinted to Itachi's room fully intending to "immediately" inform Itachi of his requested presence but it seemed Sasuke didn't have the capabilities of an efficient messenger boy.

Itachi seemed momentarily blank, then slightly irritated.

"Is that all, Sasuke?"

Is that all? You say "is that all?" when informed that a meteor is about to crash into your house. You say "is that all?" when the apocalypse is tomorrow but you most certainly do not say "is that all" when an angry Fugaku wants something immediately and you fail to provide said thing immediately.

"It seems pretty urgent." Fugaku's voice was still ringing in Sasuke's ears and he noticed it was his name being called. Itachi could probably get away with showing up a day later but Sasuke would take the heat for it.

"Sasuke," Itachi signed, sounding as though years of his life had been taken for no good reason. "I'm about to take a bath-"

There are no words to describe what strange things manifested in Sasuke's brain at those words. Sasuke himself with a team of esteemed neurobiologists/ psychologists working for years wouldn't be able to explain it.

"Tell him I will be there shortly."

But luckily those next words stopped short that peculiar phenomena and sent Sasuke into a panic mode instead.

"You want me to tell him to...wait?" he queried, incredulous.

Itachi made a soft sound of amusement at his brother's tone. "Strange though the notion might seem, Sasuke, I believe father is capable of such a thing."

"Do you?" Sasuke mocked back. "Because I don't think he can without committing filicide."

Itachi walked towards his bathroom door, smiling gently. "It's not so easy to kill me."

"Right. like he'll ever think of touching his precious prodigy. I was talking about me."

Itachi paused almost indiscernibly at the threshold of the door, then went in gracefully and closed the door behind him.

Sasuke was left in Itachi's room, clueless and a bit amazed like a Neanderthal who had just discovered the miracle of opposable thumbs. Sasuke most certainly would not like anyone bursting into his room, much less being left alone in his room. And Itachi was a very private person. Still, Sasuke was extremely grateful, he needed to hide from Fugaku till Itachi finally decided to grace him with his presence. And somehow there was this unspoken rule that his parents never went into Itachi's room. Sasuke seldom entered his room either.

He looked about the very neat, if a little bare, room. Sasuke noticed Itachi's black t-shirt on the bed. Was that the old t-shirt he was wearing ...or was it a new one placed on the bed to wear after a bath? It seemed to Sasuke a matter of paramount importance and Sasuke found himself picking it up and inhaling it to try and find the answer. It was fresh, it was new...but it was on Itachi's bed and it had a slight Itachi-esque scent to it.

Slightly questioning his sanity and strongly refusing to ponder the matter in detail he put on the t-shirt. It was slightly longer than it would perhaps be on Itachi, but still it fit well enough. Sasuke was ridiculously pleased with this. The t-shirt Sasuke had been wearing was basically the same as the one he now wore, except that was his and this was Itachi's. So it wouldn't really be noticeable if Sasuke replaced the two, right? Right. So Sasuke placed his t-shirt in exactly the same way Itachi's t-shirt had been placed on the bed.

There.

Now...what the hell was that?